Text before marriage a no-no

The fiancee of Test cricketer Damien Martyn called off their wedding after she found text messages from another woman on his mobile phone.

Martyn was due to marry Helen Appleyard on June 14 in the cricket wedding of the year, with the likes of Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting and Justin Langer invited to the Crown Casino celebration.

But eight weeks before the date, Ms Appleyard suddenly called the wedding off. Sources within the Australian team have said she discovered the text messages and then other evidence of contact with another woman.

Messages on Martyn's phone were believed to have come from a 21-year-old South African woman.

"I've heard rumours that the wedding was called off because of text messages, but I have never asked Damien about it," said his manager, Colin Young.

Ms Appleyard declined to talk about the matter. "This is still all a bit raw, but it is in the past and that's where I want it to stay," she said. When asked, she did not deny that text messages were the cause of the break-up.

Martyn is in South Africa and could not be contacted.

Meanwhile, a Gold Coast radio station is hoping to submit Shane Warne's South African accuser to a live-to-air polygraph test - possibly as soon as this week.

The radio station, Sea FM, confirmed to The Sunday Age late last week that it had offered Ms Cohen Alon and her lawyer economy-class air tickets so they could come to Australia as soon as possible. The station had also offered the price of accommodation for the two while in Australia.

In a related development, Ms Cohen Alon has been charged with extortion following a complaint by a South African associate of Warne's.

Warne's manager, his brother Jason, spoke to The Sunday Age last week of how, now that his brother was suspended from cricket, people were inclined to focus on what else he was doing.

And he denied there had been a deliberate strategy to remake his bother's image. Jason said: "He's always done things for charity, but he never looked for publicity... and nobody gave him any. The biggest difference between now and years gone by: now that he's not playing cricket... people have started looking at what else he's up to."

Warne is serving a 12-month suspension from cricket for testing positive for a banned substance.